Poll: If you or your DW have started SS, how much did starting SS increase your spending and/or quaity of life?

[pb4uski]

One of the arguments for taking SS early is to have more income/cash flow in your go-go years to have more money to be more active, do more traveling or whatever and live life fuller. On the other hand, if you have a well funded retirement you can spend enough to live the lifestyle that you want with or without SS and that starting SS doesn't really make a difference spending or quality of life.

This question is for those who have started SS. Did starting SS result in an increase in your spending or quality of life? Explain.

 

[harllee]

I waited until age 70 to start taking SS and I get around $5000 per month --this is a major part of my income. I moved in a Continuing Care Retirement Community recently and my SS payment pays for most of my CCRC monthly payment. I could not afford to live at the CCRC without my large SS payment

 

[pb4uski]

^^^ So it sounds like waiting actually increased your quality of life or at least reduced financial stress because your higher SS covers more of your CCRC monthly payment than taking SS early would have. Definitely an angle that I had not thought of.

 

[Gumby]

We are fortunate enough that our two mostly COLA'd pensions and my social security fully cover our spending. Alternatively, a 4% draw on our portfolio would also fully cover our spending. The young wife is not eligible for her own SS and, due to the GPO, does not get a spousal benefit and will not get a survivor benefit. So when I go, the social security goes away entirely. I took SS at 62 to preserve more of the portfolio for her use after I'm gone; a form of insurance if you will. It didn't change our spending at all.

 

[fosterscik]

I/we are fans of the "set money aside as cash to use until delayed SS money becomes available" model. We also use Mike Piper's model, so for us that means taking SS for DW at 62 (done some time ago) and delaying until 70 for me. So all of this is baked in to our spreadsheet modelling. The net result: our spending is predetermined. The amount we spend did not change when DW started drawing, and will not change when I start in a couple of years.

 

[RE2Boys]

Started SS at age 63 (in 2013), primarily so that my minor children could benefit from a SS check with no impact on my benefits. My SS benefits are subject to WEP do to my career in government such that waiting had very little benefit. Many years of receiving a monthly benefit of $327. My wife's benefits will be much greater and she is planning to wait until age 70, she just turned 65. Each person's sitution is different as to when to start SS

 

[euro]

DW started at 62, I intend to wait until FRA or 70 to maximize HER benefits. That said, none of it has (or likely will) impact(ed) spending or quality of life. It's more like a "belt and suspenders" hedge for DW

 

[5Miler]

My FRA was 66 and I started SS at 68 yrs and 5 mos which was almost 3 years ago. FYI - Paid off home and vehicles with no outstanding loans to anyone. It had a, to me, significant impact on my spending so I use the increase mainly for travel with various upgrades. I had been taking the same IRS withdrawal for 10 years without any upward adjustments so when I started SS it resulted in an almost 30% increase in my net income after taxes and health care. Foolish me for not increasing my IRA withdrawal over the years. I did stop my IRA withdrawals and now just use tax withholding on my SS to pay the taxes on my Roth conversions to the top of the 12% bracket. Probably low level income to some but more than enough to make me happy. I'm just trying to better position myself for RMAs which start in 2026.

I believe I subconsciously kept my income lower as my DGF was extremely income limited until recently due to ACA subsidy income jockeying. I did splurge a little buying her a Delta-One ticket to London last fall when it wasn't in her budget. I couldn't very well fly Delta-One with her in coach as I'm not suicidal.

DGF just got her first SS payment this month after turning 65 so time will tell on her changes. For now we are living only on the two SS payments of about $75K gross while nearing $4M in investable assets. As is often mentioned on this forum, we need to spend more money.

 

[Alan]

When we retired the bulk of our income came from my US private pension which is fixed (no COLA component). After 11 years of inflation the buying power of that pension had dropped a fair bit but then we both started drawing our UK SS, and my wife also started drawing her US SS that same year so that has been a great help.

In February I will start my US SS, which will be 15 years after retiring and at that point we'll stop drawing down any funds from our IRAs.

 

[pacergal]

DH and I took at 62. We both have pensions, with 100% survivor, which we used to model our budget. SS gives us the extra for nice vacations, smaller emergencies and repairs, and the ability to save little each month to add to emergency fund.
We do not have as much saved as many here, retired from lower paying govt jobs, but have wonderful pensions. Still have a greater income and savings than we ever thought we would.
We are thankful and blessed.

 

[iloveyoga]

DH and I took at 62. We both have pensions, with 100% survivor, which we used to model our budget. SS gives us the extra for nice vacations, smaller emergencies and repairs, and the ability to save little each month to add to emergency fund.
We do not have as much saved as many here, retired from lower paying govt jobs, but have wonderful pensions. Still have a greater income and savings than we ever thought we would.
We are thankful and blessed.

This is similar to what we did, started SS at 62 and our pensions early with 100% survivorship. We both worked at jobs for many years that provided a decent pension. These amounts form our monthly budget and extras come out of my IRA as needed. We are both on Medicare now and I have found that to be a great budget (and worry) relief.

 

[Koolau]

Even though we knew my SS at 70 would make a significant difference in our income, it still came as a bit of a shock just how much it was. We haven't upped our "spending" as in buying more stuff or better cars, longer trips, etc. We're happy with our regular spending. The extra has helped us fund our favorite charities significantly.

Of course, we have upped spending, like most here due to inflation (everything costs more - especially those things you must have such as insurance for car, health, home, umbrella. Oh, and taxes and gummint fees.

 

[Texas Proud]

Looks like the question should have been a bit different.....

Like 'Did you take SS early so you could spend more'? This is also a poor question, just throwing it out..

 

[Koolau]

Looks like the question should have been a bit different.....

Like 'Did you take SS early so you could spend more'? This is also a poor question, just throwing it out..

That's probably a good question for another poll, but the current question seems very relevant. As mentioned, my sudden "windfall" made a significant difference to us. When we first retired, we spent all we wanted to with no real thought for SS.

I would be interested in your question, Texas Proud (maybe start the poll for it??) Regards

 

[calmloki]

Most of my lifetime earnings were what the IRS calls "unearned income", and thus not subject to SS tax. Which was nice, but means my SS check is about modest lunch for two sized. What I really did notice and greatly appreciate is the Medicare insurance, even though a substantial amount is subtracted from my monthly SS check to pay for it.

 

[MichaelB]

Most of my lifetime earnings were what the IRS calls "unearned income", and thus not subject to SS tax. Which was nice, but means my SS check is about modest lunch for two sized. What I really did notice and greatly appreciate is the Medicare insurance, even though a substantial amount is subtracted from my monthly SS check to pay for it.

Exactly the same for us. I worked abroad and didn’t pay in, so my SS credit comes primarily from high school and college years when I worked for minimum wage.

The benefit for us is also Medicare.

 

[harllee]

^^^ So it sounds like waiting actually increased your quality of life or at least reduced financial stress because your higher SS covers more of your CCRC monthly payment than taking SS early would have. Definitely an angle that I had not thought of.

Yes. I was on the CCRC waiting list for many years so it was always a part of my plan to wait to take SS at 70 so it would provide most of my CCRC monthly payment. The CCRC monthly payment goes up with inflation each year but most years the SS increase is about the same as the CCRC increase so that works out well. Much less stress to me. I know my living arrangements are taken care of and my ability to pay the monthly fee is taken care of by my SS (unless the worst happens and SS is cut, but I am not very concerned about that).

 

[pb4uski]

Looks like the question should have been a bit different.....

Like 'Did you take SS early so you could spend more'? This is also a poor question, just throwing it out..

I'll concede that it's related, but this question is more whether an increase in income results in an increase in spending or quality of life for our cohort of early retirees.... and to be fair I think generally early retirees with well funded retirements. I guess that starting a pension might have qualified as well but I was principally focused on SS.

I also wanted to get input from people who have taken SS whether early or late and whether that increased cash flow resulted in more spending or better quality of life.

 

[Lakedog]

Voted not at all. Being single and subject to WEP with just over 10 years under SS, I started mine at 65 to coincide with medicare. My pension more than covers annual spending so SS is added to investments.

 

[Fermion]

Haven't started SS yet, still have 7 or more years, but right now it would drop our WR from 3.5% to 2%. Seems like that would increase our peace of mind and isn't that part of quality of life?

 

[REWahoo]

I voted significant as taking SS resulted in a very notable improvement in our quality of life at the time, but not for the typical reasons.

As I have stated before, I was planning to wait until at least FRA to take SS, or maybe to age 70 if the market gods were favorable. I turned 62 in December of 2008 when the market had seen a precipitous decline of 50% and was still falling like a streamlined manhole cover. Starting SS then was a much needed "sleep at night" move for us.

 

[VanWinkle]

S.O. took hers at 61 as survivor benefit and I took mine at 66 (FRA). together we get about 75K per year
so the need for withdrawals have been minimized with 2 pensions also. Withdrawals are for large purchases only and they are somewhat rare.

 

[MichaelB]

I voted significant as taking SS resulted in a very notable improvement in our quality of life at the time, but not for the typical reasons.

As I have stated before, I was planning to wait until at least FRA to take SS, or maybe to age 70 if the market gods were favorable. I turned 62 in December of 2008 when the market had seen a precipitous decline of 50% and was still falling like a streamlined manhole cover. Starting SS then was a much needed "sleep at night" move for us.

So you replaced portfolio withdrawals with early SS. Given the growth in equity markets since then, the value of your portfolio growth has probably more than offset the loss in SS pension from taking it earlier. A nice outcome.

 

[TheWizard]

I voted significant after starting SS four years ago at age 70.
During the gap years prior to 70, I withdrew some from tax-deferred for spending as well as Roth conversions
Nowadays, I have excess income most months from my pension/annuity+ SS which I invest in my growing taxable account, so zero (or negative) withdrawal rate.

I don't keep track of my spending in retirement, so I can't say whether I've increased spending significantly in the past four years, but I'd say my QoL is a bit better, knowing my finances allow me to do whatever I reasonably want to...

 

[skipro33]

For us, we really didn't need the extra income. My pension easily covers our expenses. But it did make a huge impact on our quality of life as it completely eliminated the idea of how we spend money. In our case, we no longer felt like shopping for bargains, cutting corners on making a decision between a 'good-enough' and a higher quality product, buying gifts, etc. Money simply became a non-issue as we realized our checking account was ahead by several thousands of dollars and accumulating every year.
Most recently, our sons decided this year Thanksgiving would be at a hotel on Coronado Island, San Diego. It's about a 600-mile drive and right through all of Los Angles to get there and back. So, we'll fly instead and take a taxi or Uber to get around while we are down there unless either son has room in their cars. We are renting a suite that includes a kitchen and small living room as well as a 3rd floor water view. (as opposed to a marina or no view at all) All that still falls within my pension, just that I don't have to bean count to be assured of that, knowing there's more coming in than going out for the past 6 years when I started SS at 62.
It also is covering the huge increase in homeowner and car insurance we are being hit with here in California. Then there's groceries. We saw a spike of almost 100% in grocery expenses since pre-pandemic 2020 to now. We see the spike, but we don't let it affect what we chose to purchase.
We also bought two new cars in February this year; his and hers. It is nice to not have to schedule or combine trips, we each now can go when and where we like without consulting the other over the use of the car. Hers is a little red sports car Subaru Impreza and mine is a SUV Subaru Outback Wilderness.